With the supreme Court brief due this Friday? Will they ask for a continuance?
http://extra.examiner.com/linker/?u...2008/01/02/AR2008010201116.html?nav=rss_metro
Acting D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has fired the city lawyer who had been preparing to defend the longtime District ban on handguns in the high-stakes Supreme Court case this spring.
Alan B. Morrison, on leave from Stanford Law School, who has argued roughly 20 cases before the high court, was asked to leave his post as special counsel by the end of this week, Morrison said today. Morrison had been hired by former Attorney General Linda Singer, who resigned two weeks ago, and put in charge of arguing the handgun case.
The city has appealed to the Supreme Court to maintain the handgun ban after a lower court overturned the ban in the spring. The high court agreed to hear the case, probably in March, which would mark the first time the Supreme Court has examined a Second Amendment case in nearly 70 years.
Singer cited frustration that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) had relied more heavily on Nickles, who had been his general counsel, to make key legal decisions. Upon Singer's resignation, Fenty replaced her with Nickles, a former high-powered corporate litigator at Covington & Burling and friend of Fenty's family.
Nickles met with Morrison on Dec. 21, but did not tell him that he would be fired, Morrison said. Last week, Nickles asked Deputy Attorney General Eugene A. Adams to inform Morrison of his decision.
"I've been asked to tell you that Peter has decided that he will not be relying on you to make the . . . argument before the Supreme Court," Adams wrote in an e-mail to Morrison, which Morrison provided to The Washington Post. "It's a decision he's been wrestling with since you met with him last week. He thought it only fair that you be informed sooner rather than later."
Morrison had taken an active hand, along with a team of lawyers from the city and two private firms, in writing the 15,000-word brief that is scheduled to be filed with the high court on Friday. It is not clear whom Nickles will select to replace Morrison.
http://extra.examiner.com/linker/?u...2008/01/02/AR2008010201116.html?nav=rss_metro
Acting D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has fired the city lawyer who had been preparing to defend the longtime District ban on handguns in the high-stakes Supreme Court case this spring.
Alan B. Morrison, on leave from Stanford Law School, who has argued roughly 20 cases before the high court, was asked to leave his post as special counsel by the end of this week, Morrison said today. Morrison had been hired by former Attorney General Linda Singer, who resigned two weeks ago, and put in charge of arguing the handgun case.
The city has appealed to the Supreme Court to maintain the handgun ban after a lower court overturned the ban in the spring. The high court agreed to hear the case, probably in March, which would mark the first time the Supreme Court has examined a Second Amendment case in nearly 70 years.
Singer cited frustration that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) had relied more heavily on Nickles, who had been his general counsel, to make key legal decisions. Upon Singer's resignation, Fenty replaced her with Nickles, a former high-powered corporate litigator at Covington & Burling and friend of Fenty's family.
Nickles met with Morrison on Dec. 21, but did not tell him that he would be fired, Morrison said. Last week, Nickles asked Deputy Attorney General Eugene A. Adams to inform Morrison of his decision.
"I've been asked to tell you that Peter has decided that he will not be relying on you to make the . . . argument before the Supreme Court," Adams wrote in an e-mail to Morrison, which Morrison provided to The Washington Post. "It's a decision he's been wrestling with since you met with him last week. He thought it only fair that you be informed sooner rather than later."
Morrison had taken an active hand, along with a team of lawyers from the city and two private firms, in writing the 15,000-word brief that is scheduled to be filed with the high court on Friday. It is not clear whom Nickles will select to replace Morrison.
